New Delhi: State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) plans to lay 1,175 km of pipelines to transport liquid gas it will import at the proposed Ennore LNG terminal in Tamil Nadu.

IOC on January 18 submitted an Expression of Interest (EoI) to sector regulator Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) for laying natural gas pipeline from Ennore to Nagapattinum in Tamil Nadu with spurlines to Madurai, Tuticorin and Bengaluru.

The company is setting up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Ennore port with an initial capacity of 5 million tons per annum by 2016 which is expandable to 10/15 million tons in future.

IOC in the application said "it was interested in laying natural gas pipeline from the terminal to various demand centres in southern states to evacuate LNG".

The main Ennore-Puducherry-Nagapattinam will be 325 km in length and 28-inch in diameter, while a 290 km, 24-inch spurline will be laid to Bengaluru from Thiruvallur. Also, a 242-km spurline from Nagapattinam to Trichy and Madurai is planned. Another 318-km spurline from Nagapattinam to Ramnathapuram, and then to Tuticorin, is also being proposed.

PNGRB authorises entities to lay oil and gas pipelines in the country.

IOC in the application said the pipelines will have a carrying capacity of 18.35 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas. The pipeline will be injected with natural gas at Ennore for delivery to industries in Thiruvallur, Bengaluru, Puducherry, Nagapattinam, Trichy, Madurai, Ramnathapuram, Tuticorin and other centres along the route.

Demand centres such as Chennai, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Kanchipuram, Vellore, Madurai, Chittoor and Kolar will also be fed through the pipeline.

IOC said the 12.5 mmscmd of demand has been assessed on the pipeline route in 2015-16, which will increase to 18.35 mmscmd in 2024-25, and 32.10 mmscmd in 2039-40.

The company plans to build the Rs 4,320 crore LNG import facility at Katupalli (Ennore) by 2016. Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) may take a 5-10 percent stake in the project.

Ennore will be the third LNG terminal on the east coast with state-owned GAIL India Ltd building a facility at Kakinada

in Andhra Pradesh and Petronet LNG Ltd setting up a 5 million tons facility at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh.

LNG is a gas that has been cooled down to liquid form, taking up just 1/600th of the volume in its gaseous state for ease of transportation by sea.